- Aubameyang’s new three-year Arsenal contract to be signed ‘imminently’
- Gunners captain is poised to eclipse Mesut Ozil as the club’s highest earner
- German earns £350,000 a week under terms of his current Arsenal contract
- Aubameyang’s decision follows months of negotiations and uncertainty
- The 31-year-old, who scored 29 times last term, was into his final 12 months
- Manager Mikel Arteta and player’s father were influential in his decision
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is ‘poised to sign a new three-year contract at Arsenal’ that will see him become the club’s highest-paid player. The news that the 31-year-old striker – Arsenal’s leading goalscorer with 29 last season – has committed his future to the club will come as a huge relief to fans.
It follows months of negotiations between the Gabon international and the London club and will see Aubameyang eclipse £350,000 a week Mesut Ozil as the club’s highest earner. The influence of Gunners head coach Mikel Arteta and Aubameyang’s father were key in persuading the striker to commit, according to The Athletic.
Arsenal captain Aubameyang was into the final year of his £200,000-a-week contract, which would have forced the club to choose between selling him for a transfer fee this summer of seeing him leave for nothing next year. Inter Milan and Barcelona were among the elite European clubs interested in signing one of the Premier League’s most consistent goalscorers.
But he will ‘imminently’ put pen to paper on a new deal through until 2023. The terms were negotiated by now-departed Head of Football, Raul Sanllehi and finalised by Technical Director, Edu and contracts specialist Huss Fahmy. Aubameyang will receive a salary increase to reflect his importance to Arsenal, who finished eighth in the Premier League last season but won the FA Cup.
Ozil has long been the club’s leading earner with weekly wages of £350,000 but Aubameyang is expected to be paid more than that under his new deal. He will also move ahead of Willian, a summer arrival from Chelsea, who is earning £220,000 a week.
The forward steps taken by the club since Arteta’s appointment last December proved crucial in persuading Aubameyang to agree to stay, according to The Athletic, in the wake of failed negotiations in the summer of 2019. Talks started up again two months ago with the mutual admiration between player and manager key in sealing the deal that sees Aubameyang remain at the club.
They started the new campaign with a penalty shootout victory over Premier League champions Liverpool in the FA Community Shield at Wembley. Aubameyang scored for the Gunners in normal time and then converted the deciding penalty.
He scored 31 goals in his first full season with the Gunners (22 in the league) following a £56m transfer from Borussia Dortmund – earning a share of the Premier League Golden Boot. The 2019-20 campaign saw a return of 29 goals in 44 matches across all competitions, with Aubameyang also installed as captain after Granit Xhaka was stripped of the armband.
